Monday, December 19, 2016

LOVE

“Love isa many-splendored thing”So goes a well-know song.And so is the truth about altruistic love,
genuine love – neither egoistic nor selfish love.While it is often heard that love is beyond
honest-to-goodness definition, it is however really anything but self-love,
something but self-care and affection, self-interest and concern,
self-attention and provision.So it is
that love means many things to different individuals, brings about various
actions and reactions among different men and women.Passion, infatuation, attraction, and many
other emotional factors are usually the more common understanding and
implication of love.But then, one thing
is nevertheless definite and defined:Genuine
love is altruistic – not egoistic.True
love is selfless – not selfish.Real
love wherefore is after the good of others, inpursuit of the latter’s wellness, in search of the latter’s
welfare.So it is that self-love is the
radical contradiction of genuine love.

So it is that sad to say, love is at times also used as
something downright vicious – such as “love
of money”, “love of power”, “love of luxury”.All these and the like are nothing more than basically self-love
which can be the cause of anti-others, anti-family, as well as anti-society individualistic
stance.By the way, let it be said that
self-love is practically the guarantee of a difficult if not actually “broken” self, a “broken” family, a “broken”
camaraderie.This is precisely the
reason why a genuine love is a blessing, self-love is in effect a self-curse.

In its more concrete understanding and application, it is genuine
love- geared for the good and
advantage, the welfare and benefit of others – that makes love in the family
not only dynamic but also blissful.It
is the same genuine love that brings about family joy and contentment, family
closeness and stability.It is then
understandable that its opposite – hatred in a family – is a most painful
reality.The reason is rather
simple:As love makes family members
dear and endearing individuals to one another, so it is that hatred makes them
the enemies among themselves.

There us nothing like the family where love is lived, felt
and wherefore experienced among the constituent members thereof – from the
parents to the youngest child. And this is something that is both natural and
ethical, spiritual and moral – taking into account but the following elementary
realities about men and women:

1.It is love that
makes a man and a woman get married.

2.It is love
thatmakes a couple have children.

3.It is love that makes a mother carry her child in
her womb for months.

4.it is love that
makes a father work and care for mother and children.

5.It is love that
makes father/mother care for and teach their offspring.

6.it is love that makes
parents provide for the education of their children.

Oscar Cruz

About The Blogger

Most Reverend Oscar V. Cruz, D.D. is the Archbishop-Emeritus of Lingayen-Dagupan. He is currently the Judicial Vicar of the National Tribunal of Appeals. He is a prolific writer, having published several dozen books mostly on judicial and moral matters. His most recent book is about the Social Doctrines of the Church. He also has a blog where he posts regularly. He is an avid coin collector and dabbles in woodworking art.